Welcome

MASELTOV researches and develops innovative information technologies to facilitate bidirectional integration via local community building and to empower cultural diversity.

MASELTOV folder

The MASELTOV project folder is available here (PDF, 39 MB)

Final meeting of MASELTOV project

May 12, 2015: Final review meeting at the city of Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

With the final review meeting taking place at May 12, 2015, the MASELTOV project has finalized its project upon a successful presentation of its research progress and demonstrator development to the responsible division of the European Commission at Luxembourg.

The final result of the MASELTOV project is represented in the MASELTOV app with an ecological suite of 10 most relevant services, including, (1) forum, (2) help radar, (3) information service, (4) pedestrian navigation, (5) transportation navigation, (6) places of interest, (7) translation tool, (8) language learning, (9) serious game, and (10) recommendation service:

MASELTOV app

The MASELTOV consortium has released a free (demo) version of core mobile services that have been developed in the MASELTOV project. Please note that training courses are in principle necessary to understand the full scope of functionalities offered in the demo version. Language learning, serious game and pedestrian navigation might be used without training. Enjoy the app and please leave your feedback on the Google Play Store.

 

Youtube video about MASELTOV 2015 Conference

IDGEI 2015 Workshop

29 March 2015: Atlanta, GA, USA

JOANNEUM RESEARCH organized the 3rd International Workshop on Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion, Atlanta, GA, 29 March, 2015, associated with International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces 2015. The following keynote Speakers provided highly expertised insights into the state-of-the-art of intelligent narratives in serious games, computer vision and wearable technology for social inclusion, and playful learning with industrial software and devices:

  • James C. Lester Distinguished Professor, Director of the Center for Educational Informatics at North Carolina State University, NC, USA
  • James M. Rehg Professor, School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, GA, USA
  • Alex Games Senior PM, Learning and Engagement Lead, Microsoft Studios, Redmond, WA, USA; Adjunct Associate Professor, Michigan State University, MI, USA; Member of the Board of Directors, Information Technology Empowerment Center, MI, USA

Two papers of the MASELTOV consortium were accepted for oral presentation (See Program. The Best Paper Award was handed over by Lucas Paletta to Björn Schuller (Imperial College, University of Passau), Peter Robinson (Cambridge University) and co-authors.

See also Here.

Results of International MASELTOV 2015 Conference (Mobile Applications for the Empowerment & Social Inclusion of Immigrants)

16-17 March 2015 London, UK

MASELTOV 2015 conference at The Open University in London, 1-11 Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, Chairs: Stefano Kluzer, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Lucas Paletta..

The conference was hosted at the Open University in London, Camden Town, held in an informal, very direct and also very passionate atmosphere. On the first day, some of the speakers were startuppers that documented a range of very innovative experiences which are developing digital/mobile applications in a socially-inclusive perspective, for immigrants and other target groups. Participants had the time to ask them questions and make observations both during and after their presentations. The second day was focused on MASELTOV’s results and provided a clear idea about how the MASELTOV Application (MApp) works and what it can achieve. From the intense exchanges that occurred during the conference, several opportunities for collaboration seemingly emerged among the attendants.

Conference on Mobile Application for Immigrants – MASELTOV 2015

16-17 March 2015: London, UK

MASELTOV 2015 conference at The Open University in London, 1-11 Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, Chairs: Stefano Kluzer, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Lucas Paletta.

 

 

 

 

Mobile phones, especially those which provide internet access, have become for many years essential tools in the hands of migrants to address the changing needs they face in different phases of the migration process itself. Besides being important to keep in touch with the countries of origin and with family members and friends elsewhere in the world, they are also used in the countries of destination as tools to manage work, for socialization purposes, for leisure, to search for information on life in the new environment and so on. The MASELTOV 2015 international conference on mobile applications for the empowerment and social inclusion of immigrants will provide different views of this new phenomenon, based on the results of recent investigations and new initiatives they have undertaken in Europe and North America with a focus on the use of smartphones. With the aim to stimulate the sharing of experiences and ideas, presentations illustrate specific cases of new services, which exploit digital opportunities to facilitate the life of immigrants. The presentations will shift the attention to important EU project and projects in digital-based social innovation as well as to original approaches that help people who have communication problems with a low-tech, clever and effective solution.

The project MASELTOV will present in a specific session the potential of using smartphones to assist newly arrived immigrants in Europe -moving around, learning the language, connecting with potential sources of support etc.- by developing and testing an integrated application (the MASELTOV App – MApp), which provides a rich set of functionality. Various MASELTOV partners will report about the technical results achieved and the reaction of users in the field trials in the second session of the conference.

See also Here.

 

Testing the MApp to improve English language learning and cultural understanding

January – February 2015: Milton Keynes (UK) field trial

In January-February 2015 the MASELTOV project team in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University (OU) ran a 3 week field trial of the prototype MASELTOV App (MApp) in Milton Keynes (UK) that focused on how the MApp supports immigrants to improve their English language learning and to develop their understanding of the UK’s cultural context. The tools evaluated during the trial included language learning, the forum, the game and a tool to measure progress. 17 Spanish speaking participants with a low level of English, who have immigrated to the EU and are now living in Milton Keynes, took part in the trial. An initial workshop, delivered in Spanish, was held so that participants could familiarise themselves with an Android smartphone and the MApp functionality, and to build a community of learners before using the MApp in their everyday lives.

Data were gathered via several research methods including pre-trial and weekly questionnaires, logs showing what apps were used (and where and when), forum posts and post-trial interviews with the participants and the facilitator.

Early analysis has been conducted and interview findings illustrate that participants valued the language lessons and feedback demonstrates the benefits of language learning via the MApp, for example: “It is practical, you don’t have to find a place, you can just take the phone out…it’s permanently there”, “I like the tests where you could see if you learnt it or not so if I had made mistakes I could see my errors and go back and read it again” and “if I want to find a job or …need to open a bank account…really useful for people recently arrived”. Using the forum to interact with others was key in helping to create a sense of community and providing a platform where the participants could share their thoughts and experiences, for example: “If you have a question…you can share it with the other members, chat or write questions you don’t understand”. Weekly usage of the MApp tools is available, and together with the other rich data sources will allow the team to show where and when interactions happened.

For further information about the trial, please contact Jan Jones, MASELTOV Project Manager at the OU (jan.jones@open.ac.uk) or Agnes Kukulska-Hulme (Principal Investigator and Academic Lead, agnes.kukulska-hulme@open.ac.uk). The Open University’s MASELTOV Project blog can be found Here
Further information about this and other projects at the Institute of Educational Technology can be found Here.

 

Workshop on Attention in Cognitive Systems – ISACS 2014

1 December 2014: Bielefeld, Germany

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MASELTOV partner JOANNEUM RESEARCH, Austria, and CITEC (Cognitive Interaction Technology, Center of Excellence, Bielefeld University) organized together the 7th International Symposium on Attention in Cognitive Systems.

Various invited talks demonstrated attention as an important concept in the context of information selection, decision planning and affective communication systems. In the demonstration session, CITEC presented avatar and robot based interfaces that are capable to respond to variations in personality and culture specific social cueing. MASELTOV presented developments in human factors based evaluation of mobile interfaces in the frame of cultural diversity.

See presentations (PDF) Here or ISACS 2014 poster.

 

Call for Papers – IDGEI 2015

29 March 2015: Atlanta, GA, USA

3rd International Workshop on Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion IDGEI 2015, satellite of International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces 2015.

Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion possess the potential to change our society in a most positive way by preparing selected groups in a playful and fun way for their everyday life’s social and special situations. Exemplary domains span as far as from children with Autism Spectrum Condition to young adults preparing for their first job interviews or migrants familiarizing with their new environment. The current generation of such games thereby increasingly demands for computational intelligence algorithms to help analyze players’ behavior and monitor their motivation and interest to adapt game progress. The development of such games usually thus requires expertise from the general gaming domain, but in particular also from a game’s target domain, besides technological savoir-faire to provide intelligent analysis and reaction solutions.

 

 

 

 

 

IDGEI 2015 aims at bridging across these communities and disciplines by inviting respective researchers and experts to discuss their latest perspectives and findings in the field of Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion.

See also Here or download the Call for Papers as pdf.